Reports suggesting Archbishop Carlson was unaware of the criminality of sexual relations with children were based on an ‘inaccurate’ account of his testimony in a Minnesota lawsuit.

ST. LOUIS — The Archdiocese of St. Louis criticized “inaccurate and misleading” reports suggesting that Archbishop Robert Carlson did not know sexual relations with children were illegal; the archdiocese said his deposition responses were instead focused on mandatory reporting laws.

“Contrary to what is being reported, Archbishop Carlson is and has been a leader in the Church when it comes to recognizing and managing matters of sexual abuse involving the clergy,” the archdiocese said in a June 11 statement.

It highlighted his 1980 letter on a sexually abusive priest, in which he said “this behavior cannot be tolerated.”

On June 9, attorney Jeff Anderson released a videotaped deposition of the St. Louis archbishop concerning damages for a Minnesota lawsuit involving allegations of a sexually abusive priest in the 1980s. Archbishop Carlson was an auxiliary bishop and chancellor of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis at the time.

The archdiocese said that although Anderson, the plaintiff’s lawyer, made several questions at the deposition concerning whether the archbishop knew sexual relations between a minor and an adult were against the law at the time, the archbishop’s answers were referring to the previous question. That question concerned whether he knew Minnesota’s child-abuse reporting law and whether he knew that clergy were mandatory abuse reporters.

“When the archbishop said, ‘I’m not sure whether I knew it was a crime or not,’ he was simply referring to the fact that he did not know the year that clergy became mandatory reporters of suspected child abuse,” the archdiocese said.

Anderson, who has won judgments of hundreds of millions of dollars through sex-abuse lawsuits against the Catholic Church, released an excerpt of the video on June 9.

The video showed the archbishop responding, “I don’t remember” to several of Anderson’s questions about whether he knew it was a crime for an adult to engage in sexual relations with a minor.

The archdiocese said that the plaintiff’s lawyer “strategically took Archbishop Carlson’s response to a question out of context.”

The excerpted video was widely viewed and prompted many responses.

The St. Louis Post Dispatch’s editorial board published a harshly critical editorial contending that the archbishop used “slippery language” that is normally used by “lawyered-up mobsters, politicians or Wall Street fraudsters.”

It criticized what it described as the archbishop’s inability to remember his actions and thoughts in the 1980s, suggesting that if the archbishop can’t remember, “he should resign and seek treatment for Alzheimer’s or some other form of dementia.”

However, the Archdiocese of St. Louis said that the archbishop “had repeatedly requested and was denied the ability to review case documents pertaining to the questions asked of him” and is “now being maligned for his inability to recall certain events.”

‘Propaganda’ Published

Bill Donohue of the New York-based Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights on June 11 charged that the video clip was “rigged by Anderson to make the archbishop look as if he didn't know it was a crime for an adult to have sex with a kid.”

Donohue said that the news media, “led by the Post-Dispatch, published Anderson’s propaganda as if it were true.”

“It is obvious that the media never independently verified Anderson's selective account,” he said.

The Archdiocese of St. Louis said that the archbishop is not a party in the case and did not commit any crime. He previously gave depositions concerning the case at least three times in the 1980s.

“He has not only voluntarily participated in this legal process, he has offered his testimony as clearly and thoughtfully as possible, given both the span of time in which this discovery process has taken place and accessibility to certain documents,” the archdiocese said.

The archdiocese said the reporting on the deposition and the controversy has “impugned Archbishop Carlson’s good name and reputation.”

Comments

Satan loves distortions of the truth, distractions from the truth, and blatant lies.

Jesus said child rape was unforgivable in Matt 18:6. Catholics have been getting away with organized child rape for at least 5 decades, and probably forever.

The video has a very clear question and a very clear answer, yet Catholic “rebuttals” don’t show the video, and even distort the exact question and answer. Catholics are trying to dissuade their followers from seeing the truth, as they always have done in their unending cases of child rape.

Thanks for your additional distortion and distraction that people in Minnesota hate the Catholic church because it is “pro gay”, yet you ignore that the Minnesota Catholic church was exposed for committing organized, rampant child rape using the power of god.

The Catholic church continues to run away from the truth, and are proving it online for eternity, so that future generations see proof that the Catholic church organizes to avoid the truth.

Posted by JohnN on Friday, Jun 13, 2014 9:24 AM (EST):

Surely the rebuttal released by the Archdiocese has itself already been solidly rebutted - as can be seen by reading the original documents anyway. Quoting the Catholic League (Bill Donohue) as is done below contributes nothing.

Posted by ANNE on Friday, Jun 13, 2014 6:35 AM (EST):

CCC: “1868 Sin is a personal act.
Moreover, we have a responsibility for the sins committed by others when we cooperate in them:
- by participating directly and voluntarily in them;
- by ordering, advising, praising, or approving them;
- by not disclosing or not hindering them when we have an obligation to do so;
- by protecting evil-doers.”

Posted by Pete on Friday, Jun 13, 2014 6:17 AM (EST):

“When the Archbishop said ‘I’m not sure whether I knew it was a crime or not,’ he was simply referring to the fact that he did not know the year that clergy became mandatory reporters of suspected child abuse,” the archdiocese said.
Archbishop Carlson’s attorney, Charles Goldberg, had objected to Anderson’s sudden shift from mandatory reporting laws to laws criminalizing sexual relations with minors.”

Bernard law,
You must not have read and comprehended what this article is saying? Youtube is the perfect place to take things out of context. The local press in MN is very biased against the Catholic Church, they are very pro same sex marriage and despise the Church because of their opposition.

Posted by ANNE on Friday, Jun 13, 2014 5:46 AM (EST):

In the USA it has always been a crime to have sexual relations with a minor. It is and has been called “Statutory Rape” in most jurisdictions.
Child molestation is against the law.
.
All sexual activity outside of marriage (between one man and one woman) is a MORTAL SIN.
.
“ Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me;
but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea”. - JESUS Mt 18:5-6
_________________________

Posted by ANNE on Friday, Jun 13, 2014 5:32 AM (EST):

The best way to insure the truth, is for Catholic media to provide a link to unedited Court depositions and other Court documents.
This is public information.
.
Otherwise people will believe whatever they want to believe.
.
It is wrong to blame the entire Catholic Church for the actions or inactions of a few regardless of position within the Church.
______________________

I have read the entire deposition and the Archbishops answers are more what you would expect from a corporate lawyer and not from a compassionate church leader. He is quite clear in what he says and it is NOT being misrepresented in the media. The archdiocese response is laughable too. The archbishop responds “I don’t know” 193 times to questions-another case where more and more people will be discouraged with the church and regrettably leave us. When are our leaders going to get it? I guess after there is no one left. I sometimes fear I will be the only one left in my parish in 25 or 30 years.

Posted by bernard law on Thursday, Jun 12, 2014 5:21 PM (EST):

Misleading?

The Catholic church is lying to cover up a lie, knowing most Catholics will not seek the truth, which takes 17 seconds to find:

QUESTIONER: “Archbishop, You knew it was a crime for an adult to engage in sex with a kid”
ARCHBISHOP CARLSON: “Um, I’m not sure whether I knew it was a crime or not. I understand today it’s a crime”

It couldn’t be clearer. Nothing is misleading, but it gets worse as it goes on.

Join the Discussion

We encourage a lively and honest discussion of our content. We ask that charity guide your words.
By submitting this form, you are agreeing to our discussion guidelines.
Comments are published at our discretion. We won’t publish comments that lack charity, are off topic, or are more than 400 words.
Thank you for keeping this forum thoughtful and respectful.